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Thursday, November 13, 2014

What has the Australian PM started? - Canberra monitoring Russian warships 'nearing Australia'

The Australian defence ministry is tracking a fleet of Russia warships sailing in international waters near its coast.

It is believed the vessels, currently in the Coral Sea near Papua New
Guinea, could be heading to Brisbane for next week’s G20 summit, which
Vladimir Putin will attend.Australian P3 Orion surveillance planes have been deployed to monitor the ships, along with a naval frigate, the HMAS Stuart.

Russia’s
Pacific flagship, the Varyag, is leading the contingent south,
accompanied by destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov and one of the world’s
most powerful tugs, the Fotiy Krylov.

A supply tanker called Boris Butoma is accompanying them towards Australia’s east coast.

A spokesperson for the Australian Defence Force told Sky News
that Russian ships have been sent to international events before,
including the 2009 Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit in
Singapore and the former President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to San
Francisco in 2010.

He added: “The movement of these vessels is
entirely consistent with provisions under international law for military
vessels to exercise freedom of navigation in international waters.

“Defence regularly undertakes maritime surveillance patrols in the approaches to Australia.”Defence sources told The Australian that
the move was aimed at showing an “aura of power” around Putin at the
G20 summit and distracted from agenda items at the conference of world
leaders.

The ships are expected to stay in international waters as part of what
is known as a “high seas transit” for the leader, which is permitted
under international law.

A report by a London based think-tank earlier this week chronicled a
“highly disturbing” catalogue of Russian military encounters with Nato
and allies over the last eight months.The European Leadership
Network (ELN) said Russia is risking military escalation across Europe
with Cold War-style military “brinkmanship”, following 39 “near-misses”
involving its planes and ships where military confrontation or the loss
of life was narrowly avoided.

Researchers said the upsurge in
activity suggested the Russian armed forces were under orders to be more
aggressive towards Nato and its allies, possibly to test the military
response and serve “propaganda-related and political aims” to intimidate
other nations.

The approach of the Russian ships comes after the
Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, met with Putin at the Apec
summit in Beijing.

He had vowed to “shirtfront” the Russian president over allegations
that Russia had armed separatist rebels who allegedly shot down Malaysia
Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine.Children were among the 38
Australian citizens killed in the disaster, along with the rest of the
298 passengers and crew on board.

But Putin’s press secretary said
the meeting with Abbott on Tuesday went “without harsh phrasing” and
the leaders agreed to support a “genuine investigation into the causes
of the catastrophe”.